Henry Molaison Flashcards
How is Henry Molaison?
Known as “HM”
Lost his memory on an operating table in a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, in August 1953
How old was Henry Molaison?
27 years old
What did he suffer from?
Epileptic seizures for many years
Who was he operated and what was operated on?
- William Schofield
- Removed a brain structure within the temporal lobe (hippocampus).
- The procedure did reduce his seizures but left him with memory loss
What was HM referred to?
Two neuropsychologists, Wilder Penfield and Brenda Milner
In which they assess the extent of his amnesia.
What is the hippocampus associated with?
Consolidating memories so the removal of this structure was devastating and irreversible
What was HM assessed for having?
anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
What is anterograde amnesia?
An inability to form new memories.
Did HM have damaged anterograde amnesia?
Yes.
He could not store memories for new names, faces , events or information.
However, he did learn new skills, although he had no memory of learning them
What is retrograde amnesia?
where you can’t recall memories that were formed before the event that caused the amnesia
Did HM have a damaged retrograde amnesia?
Yes.
He lost the ability to retrieve memories from 19 months to 11 years prior to the operation.
He could remember partial events after the age of 16 and no events after the age of 25
How was his retrograde amnesia effected?
May not have been effected due to surgery, but it is likely to have been by epilepsy medication and the frequency of his seizures prior to the operation
What can we gain from HM?
His qualitative information, has informed an understanding of which cognitive functions were still intact and what were impaired.
What happened after HM’s death?
HM’s brain was gifted to psychological research.
It was spliced over 2000 segments to map the human brain at the Brain Observatory in San Diego
